Duane M Wulf

Interests

Teaching

I believe that teaching is one of the most rewarding things a person can do during their lifetime. Zig Ziglar said, "You can get everything out of life that you want, if you just help enough other people get what they want", and I am convinced that this is true. During my teaching experiences, I have witnessed students who were transformed from a "nobody" into a "somebody". The teacher's primary responsibilities are to instill interest in the subject matter and confidence in the student. If the teacher is effective, the students will teach themselves. I believe that in order to stimulate students' curiosity, you must not only teach the "who, what, when, where and how", but also the "why", which I feel is much more interesting. A teacher must also be open-minded to the vast differences among students with regard to their backgrounds, interests, aspirations and, most importantly, learning styles. Important concepts that I keep in mind when designing a course:• Effective learning is more about what the student does and less about what the teacher does.• Students will only retain 10 to 50 percent of the subject matter presented in a course, so it better be the most important 10 to 50 percent.• Much of the information may be out-dated in the near future; hence, a teacher must teach the students that learning is a life-long process and must instruct them on how to learn.• Cultures across the globe have different manners of production, business, cooking, etc., but the anatomy, biology and chemistry remains the same. Therefore, I should focus more on teaching the basic foundations. I.e., I should teach basic muscle and skeletal anatomy more that making students memorize meat cut names.• Today’s students have the entire world's knowledge at their fingertips, but we need to teach them how to understand it, decipher it, and apply it.

Research

Research is perhaps the most exciting segment of the academic world since the researcher is extending the boundaries of human knowledge. The broad definition of my research interests would be Meat Production and Meat Quality. The current meat marketing system in the USA encourages the production of overly-fat animals because higher fat content is related to improved meat palatability. Animals that have an excess of fat deposition are less efficient, requiring a higher amount of natural resources and having greater environmental impact than animals with an optimal level of fat deposition. In addition, meat products with higher levels of saturated fat are related to increased risk of cardiovascular disease among humans. Therefore, I am interested in improving meat quality using methods that don’t require excess fat production. Methods to improve meat quality have the potential to change market signals within the meat industry, resulting in lowered environmental impact and improved human health worldwide.Specifically, my research interests include:• Sustainability of meat production systems.• Early-postmortem glycolysis and pH decline effects on meat quality.• Methods of improving meat quality (antemortem and postmortem).• Increasing the utilization of low-value meat products.• Cultural differences in meat consumption, meat processing, and carcass utilization.I consider myself an applied researcher; however, I am very keen to the possibility of collaborating with basic scientists as I have in the past. If scientists are willing to learn from each other and work together, it provides the opportunity to make significant impact through a systems approach to solving the world’s problems.I also need to keep in mind that the citizens of Arizona are providing me with a research grant every year by paying of portion of my salary and expenses. I will make sure that the results of my research with provide a direct or indirect benefit to these tax payers.

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Presentations

• Wulf, D. M. (2022, March). Help or Hindrance? Which career paths benefit from a graduate degree, and which are unaffected.. American Meat Science Assoc. Student Webinar SeriesAmerican Meat Science Association.
  More info

  Wulf, Duane M. 2022. “Help or Hindrance? Which Career Paths Benefit from a Graduate Degree, and Which Are Unaffected.” American Meat Science Assoc. Student Webinar Series. March.
• Wulf, D. M. (2021, March). Factors affecting Beef Carcass Value. Arizona Range Livestock Symposium.
• Wulf, D. M. (2021, May). Meat Product Ingredients. AZ/NM Meat Processor Short CourseFarm Bureau.

Others

• Wulf, D. M., Garcia, S. R., & Diaz, D. (2020, May). How to Butcher a Pig (On Farm Pig Harvest Procedures). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojctijm2Tgo
  More info

  Due to COVID shut downs at several pork processing plants, there was much demand for science-based procedures for on-farm pig harvest. This video was produced and published with the support of the National Pork Board.